Words and School

Leo just asked me if he could watch Titty Titty Dang Dang. I laughed so hard, and he looked really confused. I need to start a dictionary of Gilbert-Kidisms, but it is hard to think of them because they are mostly part of my vocabulary now. I was talking to Gabe yesterday, and I told him that Benji "Slided off the couch." Jeff corrected me, "slid off the couch," he said. It is funny, because I love words, and I am generally very particular about how they are used. I started talking incorrectly to help the kids understand me without a lot of explanation for every sentence. Some days it seems like it takes 20 minutes just to get my meaning established for one idea. Another conversation this morning went something like this:

Gabe: Leo is using my doctor toys!
Me: They aren't your toys, they belong to our whole family.
Gabe: But they don't belong to you and daddy.
Me: My point is you have to share them.
Gabe: But they don't belong to you or daddy.
Me: We bought them.
Gabe: But you gave them to me for a present, and you can't take back a present.
Me: Okay, the doctor toys don't belong to me or daddy, we gave them to you.
Gabe: So I don't have to share them (He walks out of the room in victory, and I hear Leo scream in agony as another toy is ripped from his grasp).

This is going on while I am changing a diaper and trying to pick spilled cereal off the floor. It is sometimes infuriating how the point of the conversation wanders, and I forget what I was originally trying to accomplish. I'm not sure if he does it on purpose or not. I don't want to think of him as manipulative, but every child is to some degree. Gabe is a talker. He never stops. And it isn't the kind of conversation that requires an "Uhuh, uhuh." He wants me engaged, and he challenges my responses if he doesn't think I'm paying attention (which often, I'm not). When he was younger, we would have "Quiet For Five Minute" times, where I would lock myself in another room for five minutes to give my ears and brain a break. I wonder if I was like that as a child. I've always loved words ... will Gabe too? He sure knows how to use them.

I registered Gabe for kindergarten this week. That was a weird experience. We went to the school district office, and after 45 minutes of waiting in line and filling out paperwork, they gave Gabe a screening. He had to identify letters and numbers, find rhyming words, and do alliteration (find objects that start with the same sound). He did fine except for the alliteration, in which he flopped. Then ... here comes the weird part ... they gave him a SCORE! They scored my child! And it wasn't the preschool, "Gabe is such a wonderful person" scoring. It was academically OBJECTIVE! I think this is a small taste of what real school is going to be like. It makes me nervous!

Mee Mee Mee

Gabe has lately been into "experiments" in which he mixes liquids, soaps, spices, milk, and whatever else is handy and not bolted down in a big bowl. As we speak he is working on a potion including juice, wonder bread, poppy seeds, salt, steak seasoning, cake sprinkles, and dish soap. It actually smells very interesting. I used to let him do it in recycled plastic bottles, but he would want to keep the potions for days up in his room, which would make me nervous. When he does it in a big bowl, I pretend to need the bowl for something, and chuck the brew after a few hours of it floating in my kitchen.

I remember "cooking" when I was little. I would mash up bananas in a bowl, then put them in the freezer to bake. Or I would mix raisins, cheerios, and marshmallows (actually I would eat the marshmallows) and put the dish in drawers around the house to bake. I'm sure my mom appreciated finding those little surprises around the house as much I like Gabe's experiments.


Spring has sprung in our front yard. In front of the two-foot drift of snow, our crocuses has peaked out! Yay! I hope they survive the next snow storm!

Walkie-Talkies

Papa gave Gabe walkie-talkies for his birthday. Today Gabe is trying to teach Leo how to use them. He keeps telling Leo to take his walkie-talkie into the other room, then he shouts into his walkie-talkie "Come in! Come in!" And then Leo comes running in to the room where Gabe is, because Gabe told him to. We've tried explaining to Leo three times that "come in" means "talk to me" but he is a very literal kid.

Toy Story 3

My niece wrote from her mission in Argentina to ask about Toy Story 3 ... she said she has been seeing toys in store windows from the movie. So I did some detective work (googled it) and the experts (Wikpedia) say Toy Story 3 is slated for release on June 18, 2010. Tom Hanks and Tim Allen have been confirmed to return to the cast. It is supposed to be about Buzz and Woody when they get sent to a day care after Andy goes to college. Verrrrry interesting. Number 2 was so good, we'll see if number 3 is up to par. But it doesn't come out until 2010 ... the toy she saw must have been a fake. Shrek 3, by the way, is dumb. One movie to watch if you haven't yet is Star Dust. It is really cute and funny. Kind of like a fairy tale for grownups.

The winter is finally breaking a bit. The snow has melted off all the streets and today when we drove up to campus to pick Gabe up from preschool, Leo said, "Mommy, the colors are coming back!" The snow was beginning to melt off the grass, and he could see a peek of green underneath. Yay! It has been a long winter indoors, and I can't wait to open all the windows and smell that fresh air and go for walks and sit on grass, and most of all, kick the boys out into the backyard for a few hours.

Gabe hates being outside. How did that happen? Whose genes are those? I have set a rule for him that he has to go outside for 15 minutes every day, now that the weather is nicer. The first time we did this (on Monday), I set the timer, and sent him out. He stood in front of the door and stared at me. I so moved into the computer room. So he stood in front of the computer room window and stared at me. Finally, I told him that every time I saw him not having fun, I would add a minute to the timer. After I upped it a few times, he figured out that I was serious, and went to play in the snow. He started having so much fun, I didn't call him in when the timer rang. About a minute later, he screamed in the front door, "Isn't that enough fun YET?" I guess it was manufactured fun. Better than having him stare at me though the window, I guess.

Children's Play

My sister sent me this really interesting clip from NPR (National Public Radio) on why children need unstructured play for cognitive development.

Unstructured play is necessary, say the experts, to learn to self regulation. And self regulationis a better predictor of success in school than anything else they've measured ... even IQ. Lots of things detract from unstructured play ... you can guess some of them ... TV, computer games, even toys that don't demand creativity. They also warn against too many adult supervised activities at too young an age ... gymnastics, preschool. Anything that puts the child in activities where they don't have to set up their own rules, using something called their "inner voice" to plan how they would achieve the play.

Very interesting! I knew I was being a good mom when I kick my kids out into the backyard and lock the door!

Happy Happy Birthday Trieste Dear!

The BIG 30, look how far you have come! You were always so darn cute! I was a bit jealous, you somehow charmed everyone with so little effort, just that twinkle in your eye, and that crooked smile. I still am a bit jealous, you cutie! I love you, and am thinking about you today ... hoping you don't kill yourself on the slopes, mostly.

More on Cold Feet

We have a lot of snow on the ground, and freezing temperatures followed by slushy wet thaw, creating icy puddles everywhere during the day. A neighbor girl I occasionally babysit came over yesterday with cold, wet feet. She was wearing a pair of thin dress boots her mom got at a thrift store. Her mom is broke. I wanted to get her a pair of warm boots, and went on a search yesterday. I visited or called eight different stores, all of which were completely sold out of kids snow boots in Girls Size 3. Big 5 Sporting Goods had one pair left for $30, and they weren't that cute. I guess February after a snow storm is a bad time to be snow boot shopping.

I decided to try again to find boots in the morning, and hit the hay last night. Despite being quite tired, I couldn't fall asleep ... I kept thinking about Girl's Size 3 Boots. Girl's Size 3 Boots. Girl's Size 3 Boots. Girl's Size 3 Boots. Girl's Size 3 Boots! Finally around ll:30, I realized that my obsession with these boots was my issue, not my neighbor's situation. I HATE COLD FEET! Hate them with a deep and earnest sincerity. This thought process was exasperated by the fact that I just read a book about Earnest Shackleton's Doomed Expedition to the South Pole, in which he and a group of 40 men spent 497 days camping stranded on an ice flow and then a miserable outcropping of rock before they were rescued. They may have suffered malnutrition, fatigue, bad hygiene, and depression, but I worried most about their cold feet.

I must have bad circulation or something, because I remember dreading the walk to elementary school in Rexburg. It would begin with a bit of cold water seeping under my sock, progress to moderately cold, and then to feeling like each step was on a bed of nails, until my feet went numb. But that was only temporary relief, because when they began to warm up, they seared with red pain. Gabe may have the same affliction, because he cries every time we go outside.

The first year we were married, Jeff gave me an ice fishing pole for my birthday. I almost wanted to cry at the thought of going out on an icy lake for a few hours and sitting around a hole. How little did my husband know me!

Last year Jeff gave me really good snow boots for my Birthday. Waterproof, not slippery, fit well, furry on the inside. Nice looking. I really love them. It is amazing how much more I am willing to go outside just because I have good boots to wear.

Thus continues my quest today for the Girl's Size 3 Snow boots.